Good morning everyone! It’s roughly 2:00 here in la casa de Fetch, 3:00 on the East Coast, and for you lucky West Coasters, it’s just 12:00. Tonight we take a break from the wonderful world of college roundball to watch what should be an epic Australian Open final. It has a lot to live up to, as last year Rafael Nadal took out Roger Federer in 5 sets. I also didn’t get to bed until about 7 AM last year, so for selfish reasons I am hoping this match is shorter.

This looks to be an extremely even matchup on paper. Every single time you count Federer out he does something to make you shake your head, such as a straight set destruction of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who was on an absolute roll, in the semifinals. The safe money is definitely on Fed.

But Andy Murray is extremely talented in his own right. The 22 year old is perhaps the one who will assume Federer’s title as the best tennis player in the world. Already the highest ranked British player since Fred Perry, Murray is attempting to be the first Brit since Perry himself in 1936 to win a major. Although, unless you’re some kind of a moron who doesn’t think Scottish people are British, you already knew all that.

This is just Murray’s 2nd grand slam final. He no doubt has matured since his last one, a 2008 US Open final loss to Federer, but he is still in relatively unfamiliar territory. Murray no doubt has tons of majors to rack up in his career, but I am going to follow my #1 principle of tennis here: never pick against Roger Federer in a big match. I think he goes 6-4, 6-7, 7-6, 6-3

I’ll update the post after the jump. See you in a half an hour for the official start of the liveblog. Feel free to get acquainted with the thread beforehand Continue reading →

This is basically just a placeholder, and I’ll delete it when the liveblog goes up, but just a reminder that I will be liveblogging the Australian Open final, which is an epic matchup of Roger Federer v. Andy Murray, at 3:30 AM eastern time. See you there.

All right, we’re about one-third of the way into conference play this season, so Fetch and I thought it would be a good idea to have a nice, healthy debate. We all know about John Wall by now, and how much ESPN loves him and how he’s going to be ZOMGthebestPGevar. And that’s exactly why I’m going to make an argument for the SEC Player of the Year… for South Carolina’s Devan Downey.

SEC Player of the Year?

Now don’t get me wrong, John Wall is a special talent, and I’m sure he’ll succeed in the pros. However, I think Devan Downey could be having a better year in the SEC. It was an argument brought up during South Carolina’s upset of No. 1* Kentucky Tuesday night, and one I’ve discussed with a few friends, as well.

Obviously, there are a couple of things to take into consideration when comparing the two guards. One: Downey is a senior, and thus, arguably more mature and has more experience, etc. Two: both players play point guard, but John Wall has a considerable size advantage over Downey — Wall is 6’4″ and Downey is listed at a generous 5’9″.

Looking at the stats of these two players, you could easily make an argument for either, but let’s take a look at a few stats. For the year, Downey is averaging 22.35 points per game to Wall’s 17.1. Also take into consideration that Downey is averaging nearly 32 points per game in conference play to Wall’s 16.8.

Considering Wall’s roughly 7-inch height advantage, he’s barely even outrebounding the diminutive Downey: 3.68 to 3.35. As Downey is obviously more of a scoring point guard, it’s no surprise that Wall is averaging 3 more assists per game, and his assist to turnover ratio is almost double Downey’s, despite the two committing about the same amount of turnovers.

One area that Downey really eclipses Wall is in steals. Downey leads the nation in steals and his 3.1 average is second in the nation. This stat should come as no surprise, especially considering Kentucky doesn’t really play defense.

As far as shooting goes, Wall has a better shooting percentage (48.4) than Downey (41.9) which is largely due to Downey’s propensity for the three-pointer (he’s taken 72 more than Wall has)… so of course, let’s take a look at each player’s true shooting percentage, which as we know, takes into account a player’s FT shooting and 3-point shooting as well: Wall’s is 58.7% to Downey’s 52.8%.

Again, the two match up relatively well… but if I’m voting for the SEC Player of the Year, I’d probably go with Downey. I love his game, and the way he scores considering his size. I also think he means more to his team than Wall does. Wall has the luxury of playing with DeMarcus Cousins and Patrick Patterson and half a dozen other incredible athletes. Kentucky is still a good team without Wall, but without Downey, where would South Carolina be? Probably in the cellar of the (weak) SEC.

Again, there’s still a lot of conference play left, and anything can happen… but for now, Downey is my choice. That being said, let the debate begin.

Now, it’s entirely possible you have heard of this player, but I have always wanted to write a headline like that so for funzies I am going to assume you haven’t (unless you go by the internet handle CRM that is). So today, we would like to introduce you to BYU’s Jimmer Fredette.

This might not be the best time to bring him up, as BYU lost to New Mexico last night, but Fredette is having an amazing season. His per game averages are nice: 20.5 pts, 2.9 rebs and 5.1 assists, but if you take a deeper look he is having just an incredible season.

Fredette has an offensive rating of 122.2, which among players who play 40% of a team’s minutes, ranks first in the country. His True shooting percentage of 62.9 is 68th, and one of the highest amongst 6’5″ or shorter players who have shot less than 100 threes.

Fredette is shooting roughly 50% from 2, which is great for a guard, and late in games he is a huge asset for the Cougars, shooting roughly 90% from the line. Fredette is one of the rare players who needs to take more threes: He is shooting 45% from beyond the arc, but has only attempted 84 threes.

Fredette also has tons of assists: dishing out assists at a rate of 31.3, which is 77th in the country. His assist rate is also nearly double his turnover rate, which is 16.5%

Fredette is the main reason why the Cougars are ranked, and a virtual lock for the NCAA Tournament, and once March comes you will be hearing his name a lot more. Just promise you will send this post to Seth Davis at CBS when you do.

Michigan State opened the season as the number two team in the country in most polls out there. Then there was the Florida loss. Followed by a brutal drubbing against the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill (despite the final score). Losing to Texas? Nothing to be ashamed of. However, since the Texas game, Sparty has ripped off nine straight wins. A quality one against Wisconsin, too. But for a team that returned stars like Lucas, Green, Morgan and Summers, they are dreadfully underperforming.

This week we see a new #1 in the top 25 as previous #1 Texas lost twice last week.

1. Kansas (2)

2. Syracuse

3. Kentucky (1)

4. Villanova

5. Texas

6. Michigan State

7. Duke

8. Georgetown

9. Kansas State

10. West Virginia

11. BYU

12. Purdue

13. Tennessee

14. Wisconsin

15. Temple

16. Ohio State

17. Pitt

18. Northern Iowa

19. Georgia Tech

20. Baylor

21. Maryland

22. Temple

23. Butler

24. Ole Miss

25. UConn

Also receiving votes: Gonzaga, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, New Mexico

For the first time in Beadlemaniacs history, a team that received a #1 vote isn’t one of the top 2 ranked teams in the country. Kentucky, who is undefeated, is 3rd in our rankings based both on a fairly weak schedule and not an elite statistical performance.

BYU gets to 11 based on one of us putting them in the top 5 (I’ll let you guess as to who that is), Texas stays in the top 5 due to their elite defense.

For the first week all year, I don’t put Duke supremely high in the ratings due to their good standing in the KenPom ratings. But the biggest surprise of the poll this week, easily, is..